The Reel Thing

 

In 2020 I was tempted to buy several of  the new Knit Picks limited edition sock reels. 

I thought it was great fun to knit right from the reel but the resulting socks were terrible looking and blocking didn't help at all. You can't achieve any sort of even tension with kinky yarn. 

I had the bug to cast on some travel socks since my travel bag was empty and I thought I might as well give this yarn another try.

This time I unraveled it first.

Will you look at this? It was awesome looking but who could knit with this?

Even after a good soak it was still kinky. I tried hanging it with a weight but it didn't make a bit of difference.

I went online and looked up what the folks do who recycle the yarn from old sweaters. They soak it and then wrap it tightly around a big soda bottle. I didn't have one so I used a plastic deli container that I weighted with a bag of lentils so it would hold its shape. 

After a few days, as it dried, I moved it to two containers for more air flow. 

By yesterday afternoon I had two reasonably well behaved balls of yarn cast on for my travel bag. It was a lot of work for what's going to be an ugly pair of socks. The Rugby Stripe colorway is very pretty in the reel but is pretty awful once it's knit up. There's a lot of gray and very little stripe but at least it's something to keep my hands busy on long car rides.